Morel Mushroom
At this time of year, eager and intrepid mushroom hunters go in search of the highly sought morel. Understood by many to be one of the finest delicacies of the fungi world, hunters are loath to reveal their hot spots. The harvest window is sudden and short, meaning one has to be in the right place at the right time. Before I go any further, I am not an expert by any stretch, so do pay attention to the sources listed at the end of this feature.
At this time of year, eager and intrepid mushroom hunters go in search of the highly sought morel. Understood by many to be one of the finest delicacies of the fungi world, hunters are loath to reveal their hot spots. The harvest window is sudden and short, meaning one has to be in the right place at the right time. Before I go any further, I am not an expert by any stretch, so do pay attention to the sources listed at the end of this feature.
Morels are in the family Morchellaceae, with three genera and several more species. Most of these are considered edible, but it is highly recommended that they be cooked. Similar enough in appearance, false morels, family Helvellacaea, contain many poisonous species, meaning the harvester needs to have solid knowledge and identification skills. As in all wild harvesting, caution is the first rule.
Sticking with the true morels, or sponge mushrooms, distinguishing features (with the exception of the cup shaped morels, genus Disciotis) are thin brain like fleshy folds, brown to tan color and hollow stem. I have been told and shown that morels like apple trees and orchards. For a more extensive look at habitat, I refer you to this http://amateurmycology.com/?p=637.
And for further reading sources:
-Mushrooms by Kent and Vera McKnight (Peterson Field Guide)
-Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora
Scott Jackson-Ricketts
Carol Broderson asked me to post these pictures of the morels that she and Chris found. They left quite a few.
Piedmont Morels
Norah and Eva
OK. This is a heads up to those of you in the mountains. We found a mess of morels two days ago, April 24th. To see correlations between different elevations and latitudes I offer the following observations. Let me know if and when you Blue Ridge folk find morels.
- Slope/aspect: 1%-2% west facing
- Elevation: 580 feet, 20-30 feet from a small stream
- Latitude/ Longitude:
- Latitude: 37.85868
- Longitude: -78.63983
- Forest mix: canopy of large yellow poplars and white oaks, understory of dogwood and hazel alder, herbaceous ground cover of christmas ferns and honeysuckle vine.
We found these two days after a heavy rain and they were just beginning to dry up a bit. They were heavily infested by wood fleas...something that a quick soaking in salty water fixes.
It is only 85 miles from this latitude south to a latitude that is in central Grayson County. the elevation change is roughly 1500-2000 feet . I am curious about the relative time-lag between the morel show at differing elevations.
Some generalizations floating out there are that, if one remains at the same elevation, same slope and aspect, heading 230 miles north is the ecological equivelent of climbing 1000feet. There is also a 3.4 degee f reduction associated with this move. So wether you climb upslope 1000 feet, or head north 230 miles, one should see, on average, a reduction of 3.4 degrees.
Ooh, lightening strike...I should probably turn off the computer.